


satellite

by Carrot_Bunny



Series: 30 days NSFW Victuri challenge [13]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: 2011 World Figure Skating Championships, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Communication, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Nonverbal Communication, Rimming, Telepathic Bond, Victuuri Week 2017, victuuriweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 19:20:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9672584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrot_Bunny/pseuds/Carrot_Bunny
Summary: Day Six: BondsHe isn’t sure that he’s actually gotten the pronunciation right, or the word structure, or even the language itself. What if Google was wrong andspasibois actually Spanish instead of Russian?And moving on to a more crucial problem: how in the world does one communicate with a stranger thousands of miles away by sheer brainpower only?





	

His eyes follow the slender figure resplendent in black and diamonds as he glides smoothly, executing a graceful spin before he _flies_. He lifts into the air and the young boy glued to the television screen feels the exhilaration, the thrill of the wind in his flowing hair as he lands on the ice perfectly, the pride swelling in his heart as the sound of applause resounds through the stadium.

“Isn’t he amazing? Victor Nikiforov is a wonder,” Yuuko gushes beside him.

“Yeah,” he murmurs, because for one moment he’s a part of that wonder, in some inexplicable way seeing through the eyes of the silver-headed vision onscreen, and he decides that one day he’s going to experience that soaring feeling for himself on the same stage as his new idol.

* * *

He tries to catch forty winks in the car on his way to yet another press meeting, a ‘very important’ interview that he had to scrap his plans of taking Makkachin to the park for. His eyelashes flutter tiredly as he wonders whether this was all worth it in the first place, putting his career before everything else in his life. Now that’s he headed for the top of the world, was he starting to lose the spark that brought him there in the first place?

Then an image surfaces unbidden in his mind of skates dancing across a pristine white surface, feet rising and falling in a step sequence that seems to create its own unique rhythm. He feels the exuberance of getting a new routine right for the first time, so reminiscent of his early years in the rink when skating was his life and love, and a smile spreads across his face involuntarily.

He can do this. He can do anything to feel the joy of being on the ice again.

* * *

In school the teacher shows a video about the empathy link between compatible individuals, or ‘soulmates’ as his female classmates call them, and after school he keeps eyeing Yuuko as they walk with Nishigori to the Ice Castle together. _Sensei_ had said that most people develop their empathy link with the progression of puberty, from experiencing their partner’s feelings when the other is in an emotional climax to hearing thoughts in their head, and he’s read somewhere before that some soulmates can even communicate with each other through telepathy.

When he’s sure that the only sound in his mind right now is his own pensive voice, he tries mentally chanting “I like your hair bow” repeatedly at Yuuko instead while his eyes are practically boring holes into the back of her head – but by the time they enter the glass doors leading to the rink she hasn’t looked up from her conversation with Nishigori once and he has to stammer an excuse of feeling queasy from lunch when they finally ask him why he’s been so silent. He’d had to use all his concentration to keep the message in his mind, so either Yuuko’s not his soulmate after all or he’s really bad at this empathy link thing. Possibly both.

So when he hears a foreign lullaby in his sleep two nights later he thinks it’s a dream at first, until he sits up in bed with the realization that he can’t possibly be dreaming song lyrics in a language he doesn’t even speak.

* * *

He finds out through Internet searches that ‘katsudon’ is a Japanese dish consisting of breaded pork cutlets on rice, so he assumes that the unintelligible instructions that popped up in his head out of nowhere during practice yesterday are cooking instructions. He looks up a recipe online but can’t find half the ingredients in his local supermarket, so he makes do with substitutes and manages to scrunch up an edible meal. His track record at cooking has been less than stellar in the past, so he takes the first bite with more than a little apprehension.

It’s the best thing he’s ever tasted.

The next time he takes Makkachin out on a walk during his off-day, he makes a stop at the bookstore on the street corner to purchase a book of Japanese phrases and a language audiotape.

* * *

He’s been practicing the sentence both aloud and in his head throughout spring break, garbling his way through the unfamiliar intonations in the privacy of his room while Vicchan looks on curiously. He isn’t sure that he’s actually gotten the pronunciation right, or the word structure, or even the language itself. What if Google was wrong and _spasibo_ is actually Spanish instead of Russian?

And moving on to a more crucial problem: how in the world does one communicate with a stranger thousands of miles away by sheer brainpower only?

He tries anyway, focusing all his mental excesses on the unknown entity he’s been hearing on and off for almost a year now and mouthing the words slowly as he thinks them.

_Zdravstvuyte, menya zovut Yuuri Katsuki. YA rad tebya videt'._

He is greeted with silence when he finishes, and he’s deliberating between calling it quits and making a second attempt when his mind suddenly explodes with excited jabbering he can’t make head or tail of.

“ _Yameru_ _!”_ he yells out, and the voice in his head falls silent abruptly. A tendril of panic starts to worm its way into his thoughts immediately; has he somehow shut off the connection between them before he’s even gotten to know the other person? But before he has time to formulate a worst-case scenario, a cautiously hopeful _Hajimemashita?_ appears in his head.

His eyes widen.  _Anata wa nihongo wo hanasemasu ka?_

The voice pauses. Then –  _Sumimasen?_

He’s confused now – apparently his soulmate has some basic knowledge of his mother tongue but isn’t good at interpreting spoken words yet. _Do you… speak Japanese?_ he thinks haltingly.

 _No_ , comes the reply, followed by a tingling he realizes is a laugh. _I only know a few phrases from books._

He smiles. _Well, your pronunciation is quite good._

 _Thank you!_ says the other, and a warm feeling floods his conscious to match the one in his heart. _But to be honest I’m more fluent in English than Japanese._

 _I’m okay with that_ , he thinks, and feels gratitude for the teachers who pushed him to make that A grade in English class during middle school. _My Russian isn’t so good either._

_But your words were really clear! You said your name’s Yuuri Katsuki, right?_

_Yes! I’m so glad you understood me_ , he thinks with a chuckle. _I was really worried that I might’ve gotten the wording wrong._

_Don’t worry, it was perfect. Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet!_

It’s the moment he's been waiting for, the unveiling of his mysterious other half, but the next words that come cause him to literally fall off the bed in shock.

_I’m Victor Nikiforov!_

* * *

He turns his toe inward, launches himself into the air, and nails his quad flip with precision.

“Good work, Vitya!” Yakov calls from the side of the rink. “Go take a break while Georgi practices.”

He’s been acting differently of late, Yakov thinks to himself as he watches his star student skate towards the exit eagerly. In the past he would take his time leaving, stalling as if he was unsatisfied with his performance and wanted to take it to greater heights. It was an admirable resolve of course, but it wasn’t easy on him physically and Yakov had needed to remind him often to keep his body in top condition with sufficient rest as well.

Now he doesn’t need to be told twice to get off the ice and make way for the other skaters, heading straight for his bag leaning against the boards and retrieving his phone again. That’s another new habit for him; normally he doesn’t have much use for technology and only uses his phone to contact Yakov regarding training, yet now he’s smiling as he taps away on the keyboard. Yakov has no idea who this mystery person he’s always texting is, but it doesn’t seem to affect his practice and it uplifts his mood significantly so it shouldn’t be a problem. Georgi’s obsession with that new ice dancer Anya though, now _that_ was a problem.

Yakov turns back to bark at his other pupil, while the young man the newspapers have been calling Russia’s biggest rising star giggles like a schoolgirl at the new message he’s received on MSN. It’s a cutesy combination of symbols and Japanese characters that look somewhat like a dog, and if he squints the right way he can _kind of_ see the resemblance to Makkachin.

 _The classmate sitting behind me taught me that. He says it’s called an emoticon_ , the next sentence reads.

 _Looks like you’ve been learning quite a lot in high school_ , he types out with a grin. _By the way, how was your literature test last Tuesday?_

_I think I did okay. Some of the phrases were a little hard to interpret._

_Yuuri, you spent two hours practically memorising your textbook! And I should know, I could feel you buzzing in the back of my head even in my sleep! You put a lot of effort into your studies, so have a little more confidence in yourself, okay?_

_…Okay._ The nervous tension creeping at the edges of his mind slowly dissolves into a comfortable relief. _I think I actually feel a bit better hearing you say that. Or, uh, think that._

He laughs aloud, until he realizes that he’s supposed to have been texting his soulmate instead. A glance at his phone screen shows that the last chat log is the message sent to him two minutes ago: _Some of the phrases were a little hard to interpret._

_Whoops. We’ve been doing the brain thing again._

He feels the familiar tingling that signifies laughter. _I can’t believe the great Victor Nikiforov calls telepathy “the brain thing”._

_You’ll soon find that I’m actually not as oh-so-wise and mature as the press interviews makes me out to be. Although I am indeed irresistibly handsome in real life as well as in magazine covers._

_I can’t tell whether you’re really that narcissistic or just trying to flirt with me._

_A little self-love never hurt anyone. And who else am I supposed to flirt with if not my soulmate?_

The tingling again, along with a flush of heat that represents embarrassment. God, he is _so_ cute.

_But enough about me. How’s training for the Senior Championships going?_

_It’s fine. My coach says I’m as ready as I’ll ever be if I just keep up with practice. To be honest I wasn’t really sure I should make my senior debut this year, but Sensei thinks I can do well and Yuuko and Takeshi told me to go for it, so… I went ahead and did it, I guess. It’s going to be very different from Juniors, that’s for sure._

_Yeah, I remember how nervous I was during my senior debut too. Everyone was older than me and I felt a bit out of place, but Yakov told me not to worry about the rest and just concentrate on my performance. As it turns out having six combination jumps in one program was already quite enough to occupy my brain_ , he thinks with a smile at the distant memory.

_I watched you on TV that year! Your jumps were amazing, I felt almost out of breath just watching you!_

_Probably because I_ **_was_ ** _almost out of breath then. The nerves coupled with the exhaustion almost made me want to throw up._

 _Wow._ There’s a brief lull in the mental conversation while he feels Yuuri recollect his thoughts. _You always make it seem so easy in competitions – I guess I’d never thought that you might feel nervous or tired too._

 _Of course I would, I’m human as well after all! But yeah, I tend not to show that side of me to others often. The only people I’m really close to are probably Yakov and Makkachin, if a poodle counts as a person._ The corners of his mouth spread further apart as they tilt upwards. _And now you too._

_M-me?_

_Yup. Trust me, I’ve gone through all of it before and faced hardships just like everyone else. I can definitely relate to how you’re feeling right now. And if you ever need any advice, you know how to reach me right?_

_Yeah, thanks._ Another pause. _You know, I didn’t know what to expect when I became aware of my soulmate, and then I nearly had a heart attack when I found out it was you, but… now it feels like we’re being friends. It’s nice._

 _Friends?_ He turns the term over in his head a few times, his smile growing softer as he comes to his realization. _I guess we really are friends. I don’t have many of those ei-_

“Oi Nikiforov, what are you grinning at?”

He looks up in surprise at the interruption to see one of the younger skaters from Yakov’s junior division staring at him with his nose wrinkled in a frown. He gives a light wave, and the blond kid zooms away immediately while giving him side looks all the while.

_I think I might’ve creeped out one of Yakov’s kids._

_Yakov has children?_

_No no, I mean his younger students. This one probably thinks I’m crazy._

_Who’s to say you aren’t?_

_You can be quite sassy when the mood hits you, you know?_ he thinks amusedly. _That attitude might give you a higher performance score if you play your cards right during your program._

Another slight tingling. _My coach would rather I work on my technical elements instead. But okay, I’ll keep your advice in mind. I have to go now, talk to you later!_

 _Okay, bye!_ He feels the corner of his mind he’s long since attributed to Yuuri go still, then puts his phone away and heads back to the rink with renewed vigour.

* * *

He watches the second day of the Grand Prix Final in Celestino’s apartment along with a few others from the Detroit Skating Club. He was a bit hesitant to approach them when he first arrived after finishing high school, but in the months since he’s worked up the courage to talk to them (no thanks to Victor harping him on about it, seriously that guy nags worse than his own mother) and found them to be surprisingly very welcoming and almost overprotective of their new rinkmate. In fact, they helped a lot with his homesickness in the first few weeks by inviting him over during long weekends and holidays, and a few have even had the chance to admire the giant poster of Victor Nikiforov hanging over his bed in his dorm room as well.

_(Why just the one poster though?_

_I didn’t want you to see a whole collection of your own face plastered on various memorabilia and end up with an even bigger head than you have already._

_Sheesh, Yuuri’s so mean~)_

“So who are you cheering for in this year’s Final, Yuuri?” one of them asks him as they jostle for comfortable spots in front of the TV.

“Isn’t the poster in his room enough proof already?” another quips from the sofa, which causes a couple of voices to demand to know exactly what poster they’re talking about. To their credit, they only nod knowingly when he finally reveals the answer with a slight blush.

“I completely understand why you’d support him – he’s just so dreamy, and his form during skating is so beautiful,” a girl croons, and he thinks that she and Yuuko would make good friends if they ever met one day.

_Maybe she follows my fan club page on Facebook, you told me Yuuko-chan does. They might even have talked in the forums before._

_Victor, shouldn’t you be focusing on your free skate instead? You’ll be up in two turns._

_Just clearing my mind for a bit before I get into the rink. I’m the last in the lineup after all._

_Don’t get overconfident now, okay? Just because you placed first in the short program doesn’t mean you’ve got this in the bag yet._

_As if I don’t know. But I’m telling you, I’ve got a good feeling about this. It’s like my whole body is itching to get onto the ice already._

_I know you can do it._ That’s the one thing he’s absolutely sure of. _Just go out there and do your best, okay?_

_Anything for you, moye serdtse. Oh, Yakov’s calling me – wish me luck!_

_Yeah! Davai!_

It isn’t until he’s crying tears of happiness into one of Celestino’s throw pillows over Victor’s record-breaking score and subsequent first Grand Prix gold medal that he realizes Victor had just called him _my heart_.

* * *

“So what about your personal life? Have you met anyone special yet?” the reporter asks, like dozens of her colleagues have done before her.

He simply smiles beatifically as he normally does. “I prefer to focus on my skating for now, and I’m in no rush to enter a relationship yet.”

 _Bullshit_ , his inner voice chides, and he can’t help but feel a pang when he realizes how much it sounds like Yuuri.

He still remembers the rush of euphoria coursing through his body as he did his victory lap after the Final results were announced, and he’s firmly sure a good part of it wasn’t just his own emotions. Then at the press conference after he’d felt the slightest sensation of stark numbness as he sat before the cameras, like a white hot bolt of lightning had just shot past and fried his nerve endings, but he’d been too busy fielding questions about his fresh victory to put too much thought into it. Ever since then however it was like there was a damp cloud residing in the back of his head, muddying the normally clear reception he had of his partner’s thoughts, and frankly it worried him a lot.

Initially he’d put it down to a resolution to focus on the upcoming Senior Championships back in Japan, but even after he’d seen the news of Yuuri’s win on the JSF’s website the other hadn’t said anything more than a few words of thanks in response to his exuberant congratulations. Then when he’d seen the familiar name under Japan’s representatives on the list of Worlds competitors he’d nearly screamed with excitement, but his elation was immediately tampered down when he realized his soulmate had probably already known and didn’t even bother to tell him.

In the nearly four years since they’d first communicated this was the longest he’d gone without knowing what was going on in Yuuri’s head, and even when he’d guiltily tried to probe into his mind he was only met with silence. Not a complete vacuum, his presence was still there, but it was as if he was deliberately being shut out and he had absolutely no idea why. Was it something he said or did? Did something happen to his soulmate? What in the world was going on?

 _I’m in no rush to enter a relationship_ , he’d said, because the one person he wanted to do so with had been point-blank ignoring him for almost three months.

“It’s going to be fine,” he says aloud in the dead of night while lying awake in bed, Makkachin nestled comfortably at the foot of his bed. “We’ll see each other in Tokyo and fix things properly. Maybe he’ll even take me to Hasetsu to see his family’s hot springs,” he muses hopefully.

Then the Tohoku earthquake happened.

* * *

He’s going to Russia. He’s entering the country where Victor was born. They’ll be the closest they’ve ever been physically in their entire lives. He’ll finally get to meet his soulmate in person at last like he’s always dreamed of.

So why is every bone in his body screaming at him not to go?

He over-rotates, loses his balance and hastily holds his arms out to curb his fall, and the moment his hand touches the cold surface he’s forcibly taken back to that one moment during the Senior Championships where he’d touched the ice while coming out of a quadruple toe loop. Looking back on his performance it was a sheer miracle he’d gotten the gold, and even now he’s still considering writing a letter to the JSF to tell them they picked a sham to represent them in Worlds.

How can someone as inferior as him even call himself the soulmate of Victor Nikiforov?

Of course he knows what “compatible individuals” really means. Of course he’s aware of the fact that couples with empathy links have a 93% chance of getting married later in life. He’d been the best man at Takeshi and Yuuko’s wedding, and he still remembers the groom’s speech of how the bride used to keep him awake during science class by loudly singing in his head. He’s even been aware of Victor’s feelings towards him for quite a while already, though he’d tried to convince himself it was just fond affection.

But now reality has finally caught up with him, and he can’t feign ignorance any longer.

 _Anything for you, moye serdtse. “My heart_.”

_I can’t be your heart, Victor. I don’t know whether I’m strong enough to take care of it properly._

“Yuuri! Hey, Yuuri!”

He blinks twice. “Oh, sorry coach, what did you say?”

Celestino huffs a breath of exasperation. “I think that’s enough practice for now, young man. Go wash your face or take a drink of water and we’ll begin again in half an hour. Worlds is right around the corner, you can’t afford to space out at this point.”

“Yes coach.” He glides to the rink exit, feeling the eyes of the other skaters on him as he puts on his skate guards, and his shoulders droop even more with the weight of the burden upon him.

* * *

Nikolai Plisetsky looks a bit like a grizzly bear and is twice as gruff, but his hard exterior falls away the moment his eyes fall on his grandson.

“Yuratchka! You’ve grown so tall!” he exclaims happily as he envelopes the young skater in a hug. “And you must be Nikiforov! Luckily I brought enough pirowzskis to share.”

“You don’t have to give out your food to strangers, Grandpa,” Yuri mutters as he chomps on his pastry.

“Don’t worry Yuratchka, I saved you the lion’s share. Eat up and do well in tomorrow’s competition, alright?”

Yuri nods assent, his lips threatening to burst into a smile at any moment. It’s the most endearing Victor’s ever seen him, and he leaves the two of them to their own reunion as he walks into the hotel lobby himself.

To be honest though, he didn’t agree to accompany Yuri to see his grandfather purely out of the goodness of his heart, although he has to admit the mouthy little brat is starting to grow on him. Still, he wouldn’t have thought twice about leaving him to his own devices if Chris hadn’t told him the Japanese skaters were staying in this hotel too.

Then again, he doesn’t actually have a solid plan in place as to how exactly he’s going to drop in on Yuuri out of the blue. It’s not like he can just waltz up to his hotel room and knock on the door, after all. He can’t even use the elevators since he doesn’t have a room card –

“Ah, Victor! I didn’t know you were staying here as well!”

He looks up to see a black-haired man waving genially towards him, and his face clears in recognition. “Oda-san! It’s been a while!”

“Likewise, likewise! I was surprised to see you here, I’d heard your coach had arranged other accommodations for your team.”

“Oh I’m not staying here, I came to visit someone. Or at least, I’m trying to.”

He takes a deep breath and decides asking wouldn’t hurt. “You know Yuuri Katsuki, right?”

* * *

He’s sleeping off the jet lag when a thought flashes clearly in his befuddled mind.

_I’m coming for you, Yuuri. Please wait for me!_

Within a split second he’s sitting up in bed panting heavily. _Shit shit shit this can’t be happening, how did he even find out where I’m –_

**_Knock knock knock!_ **

He eyes the door apprehensively as if it might eat him, then flinches when he hears his name being called. “Yuuri! I know you’re in there! Open up!”

“Nobody’s in here! You’ve got the wrong room!” he yells desperately, then burrows deeper into the covers to hide from the incessant knocking.

“Yuuri, please! I need to talk to you!”

 _But I don’t want to see you!_ he screams inside his head, and astonishingly the knocking stops immediately.

He pokes out half his face tentatively from under the covers. Maybe Victor left already?

 _Did you really think I’d give up that easily?_ Victor asks peevishly, and he yelps because this is the first time he’s heard his voice in his mind in a – how long was it again?

_Three months._

Oh. That long, huh.

_Yuuri, I’m serious. I know you want nothing to do with me right now, but given our previous friendship don’t I deserve to know the reason why at least?_

It’s the word ‘friendship’ that finally gets to him, and he heaves a deep sigh as he gets out of bed and crosses towards the room door slowly. He twists the knob, pulls the door open, and there stands the person who’s taken up prominent headspace in his brain for more than four years staring at him with an unreadable expression.

This is nothing like how he’d envisioned his first meeting with his soulmate to go.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Victor says finally, and he moves to make way for him almost mechanically. He closes the door behind him and follows the taller man into the room, sitting on the foot of his bed while Victor remains standing.

“Okay, you’ve seen me now. Is there anything else you want?” he asks tiredly.

“Yuuri, you’re one of the people who knows me best in this world. Can’t you figure out exactly what it is that I want?”

_Of course I can. That’s why I was avoiding you in the first place._

“I don’t understand.”

He breathes in deeply. “Yeah, you never really have, have you?”

“Yes, and you’re the reason why!” Victor blurts angrily. “You’ve _never_ allowed me to understand you at all! _I’m_ the one who reaches out first, _I’m_ the one who finds a way to start the conversation, the one who’s always been doing the work is _me_ ! I was perfectly fine with it at first because I knew you were still young and it’s my responsibility as an adult to be considerate of you, and I was so happy when you finally started opening up, but then the Grand Prix Final happened and you shut me off like I didn’t even matter to you anymore! And you never even told me _why_!

This isn’t like you Yuuri! I know you lose confidence in yourself sometimes, and that you overthink things often, but you’re _better_ than this! You have so much potential, imagine what you could do if you’d just stop pushing away the people who care about you!”

“You mean I could be like you?”

“… What?”

“That’s what you’re trying to say, isn’t it?” He gets to his feet, his veins pulsing at a rapid pace. “You keep telling me I can do it, I can achieve anything if I just try, but the truth is I’ll _never_ be as great as you want me to be Victor! I’ll _never_ be like **_you_ **!”

“Yuuri,” Victor whispers gently, “when have I ever wanted you to be me?”

He opens his mouth, then closes it after a long pause and looks away.

“Yuuri, please. Please look at me.” He hears footsteps walking across the floor, then jolts slightly when two large hands cup either side of his face. Victor’s touch feels so foreign, yet so familiar at the same time.

“Yuuri, I don’t want you to be me,” Victor says. “I want you to be yourself, to show the world what you can do that nobody else can. I’m not patronizing you when I tell you that you have the talent to achieve great things, I’m saying that because I’m truly _excited_ to see what you’ll do next. You were the first person to try to reach me, and ever since then it’s been a never-ending chain of surprises. You are absolutely breathtaking, Yuuri Katsuki.”

“I…” He casts his eyelids downwards, unable to maintain eye contact for any longer. “I can’t do it. I can’t do what you expect of me. I don’t know whether I can return your feelings properly Victor; I don’t know whether I can really be your heart.”

“My heart?”

“You called me _moye serdtse_ , remember? Right before your free skate at the Grand Prix Final.”

Victor closes his eyes in recollection. “I remember,” he says finally. “Yuuri, I had no idea… I didn’t know it would pressure you into doubting yourself. It just slipped out of me because those were my true feelings about you.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he confesses. “You’re so sure in your love, but me… I’ve admired you even before I was aware of your presence as my soulmate, and when we started talking to each other I was so glad to become your friend. Yet part of me still can’t fully believe that we’re really that intimate with each other, or that we’ll stay that way forever. You’ll definitely continue to reach newer and greater heights, while I… I don’t even know whether I can place at the podium in my first international event.”

Victor is silent for a frighteningly long moment, and in the dragged-out pause he only hears one thought as sharp as shards.

_Skaters’ hearts are as fragile as glass._

“Then I’ll go,” Victor says finally, his eyes cold as steel.

_Huh?_

“If you don’t place in this competition, I’ll stop contacting you. I’ll keep my thoughts inside my own head and never bother you again.”

_No. That’s not it, no –_

“We don’t have to be soulmates if you don’t want to. We could… we could be fellow competitors. Or we could just remain friends.”

Something wet is sliding down his cheeks. He blinks just as Victor’s lips part in shock, and soon realizes it’s his own tears.

”Why would you say that? Why would you suggest such a thing?” he asks in a choked voice.

Victor smiles shakily. “Hey now, you know I’m not really going to leave you - ”

“ _Of course I know!_ ” he yells. “You’re my _soulmate_ , there’s no way you can ever leave me! That’s why I don’t want you to break all ties with me or whatever! I don’t need you to do anything, just _stay by my side and never leave!_ ”

His voice echoes in the sparsely furnished hotel room, resonating between them in what seems like a vast eternity.

“I’ve always done that,” Victor breathes finally, and in a heartbeat he’s wrapped in the other’s arms, a hand pressing him to his shoulder. “I’ve always been beside you, watching you fail and succeed. I’ve seen you laugh and cry, felt your excitement and your disappointment, and I don’t care Yuuri, I would gladly accept all of it. I want all of you, all your flaws and insecurities – I want to help you see yourself the way I see you. I want to give you what you’ve given to me.”

He slowly moves a hand up to grip Victor’s arm. “What I’ve… given to you?”

“You know me so well, haven’t you seen what you’ve done for me?” Victor asks as he smiles into dark locks. “I used to skate purely to please the audience only, to put on a show for them that they’d never get tired of. Now I want to show my skating to one person only, the skating that shows my true love. That person taught me what it was like to live for yourself and not for others, and to stop hiding my feelings from the world too. Because now I know no matter where I go or what I do, there’ll always be that someone who knows how I feel.

I was so scared when you cut me off because I thought I’d lost my connection to you. In the end I needed it and relied on it just as much as you did. That’s why when I said I would leave if you didn’t place I immediately felt like the dumbest person in the world, because who would ever choose to eliminate the one thing that sustains them?”

“You really are the dumbest person in the world,” he agrees tearfully. “But I think we both share that title to be honest.”

“I’d really like to share more things with you though.” When Victor pulls back to smile at him he can see that there’s tears in his eyes as well. “I want to share my whole life with you.”

He takes a deep breath. “I can’t say I have full confidence in myself yet… but I think I can believe that you’ll always be close to me no matter what. And one day I hope to give you the same reassurance too.”

Victor looks like he’s about to burst with happiness when he hugs him close again. “I’ll be waiting for that day with every part of my being.”

* * *

_Do you remember that time Oda-san got chewed out by hotel staff for letting an unauthorized person into the guest residence floors?_

He huffs amusedly as he licks the edge of the puckered rim. _How could I forget when I was the one who got him into that trouble?_

_Yeah well, Oda-san was in that hotel again last week for a press conference and he swears the manager was watching him like a hawk the entire time._

_Whoops, I’d better send him a gift basket as an apology_ , he jokes while dipping the tip of his tongue into the slit and lapping the insides lightly.

“Aah… ngh…”

_Feel good?_

_Yes, absolutely… mmm…_

He laughs as he tilts his chin to get a better angle. _It tickles when you moan inside your head like that._

_How do you even interpret arousal as tickling anyway?_

_I dunno, ask those “individual compatibility” scientists. In the meantime I wonder what’ll happen if I lick…_ **_here_** _._

“Hyah!” Yuuri gasps aloud, curling his fingers into the sheets. “Yeah, right there…”

He hums satisfiedly. _I thought so._

_Victor, ty vyydesh' za menya?_

_Sure thing, my dear –_ _wait_ _._

He looks up confusedly to see his boyfriend smiling down at him smugly. Oh lord.

 _Yuuri, did you just… did you just propose to me in Russian? While I was_ _rimming_ _you, no less?_

 _Well, you definitely didn’t see that coming, did you?_ Yuuri's grinning fit to burst, yet there's an exquisite tinge of vulnerability in the curl of his lips as well.

_So… what’s your answer?_

He’s on him in a flash, kissing him full on the mouth while his fingers tangle in the other’s hair. “Yes of course, a thousand times over,” he breathes when they finally part.

Yuuri smacks his lips together twice. “Mm, blueberry.”

“Your favorite lube flavour.” They both laugh lightly, then he rests his head on the other’s bare chest and circles a nipple gently with his forefinger.

“Is this why you mentioned the hotel in Moscow earlier?”

“Nah, that was really because Oda-san mentioned it to me while we were chatting on WhatsApp earlier. But I suppose it fits the theme, doesn’t it?” Yuuri leans down to nuzzle his forehead. “I can finally give you that reassurance you’ve always deserved.”

“I thought the rings were the reassurance you meant back then,” he chuckles as he flexes his right hand so that the golden band on his fourth finger glints in the low light.

“I already said they were more of a good-luck charm,” Yuuri points out with a smile. “And also a symbol of our connection.”

“Like how a ring has no beginning or end,” he muses, then looks up at his soon-to-be-fiance tenderly before leaning in for a deeper kiss.

_I like that very much._

**Author's Note:**

> So due to recent circumstances this will probably be my last entry for Victuuri Week, barring a sudden clearing of schedule where I can write uninhibitedly for like five hours. I might still do the last two prompts for the week in future using the plot outlines I've already edited a thousand times on paper, but for now it seems I won't be able to finish them in time for the event itself. This fic was pretty rushed itself, but if you were able to enjoy the story anyway I'd be really glad :)
> 
> Also Kubo-sensei confirmed herself that Victuuri are soulmates and I could die a little happier now, thanks 2017.


End file.
